Thread

I am looking for some advice/help when updating from 1.x to 2.x with some extensions. They are disabled in the process, but then I am looking for the best way to deal with fields such as the file upload field where I once used the nGen file upload extension and it’s now the native ee file field.

I updated a site from 1.6.9 build 20100430 to 2.1.0 build 20100720. I disabled extensions and then once the update was complete, went back into each field group and changed the fields formally nGen field to File fields. And all my image paths are gone. Should I change each nGen file field to an input field before I upgrade?

I am getting this error when I go to the page or try to edit a channel entry:
Unable to load requested field type file:  ft.ngen_file_field.php.
Confirm the fieldtype file is located in the expressionengine/third_party/ directory

Although I have deleted all the old extension references from the exp_extensions table. There is one field is this field group with a file upload type and I have deleted it and added it again and it’s still gives me the error.

So I guess I have 2 questions: any advice on upgrading with different fieldtypes? And any advice on tracing this error?

[Mod Edit: Moved to the CodeShare Corner forum]

Fixed the error, I had a rouge nGen file upload field in a Matrix that I missed. I changed it to a File field and the error is gone. However, the those fields are now blank instead of filled with image paths.

But they do take a value if you enter the correct one?

Yes, I just have to go through and choose each file again. I am in the process of updating another site and changed all the nGen file fields to text input and we’ll see if that works.

Very good. Let us know how it goes, please.

No go. It loses the file upload path. So it’s example.jpg instead of https://ellislab.com/asset/images/team-photo/example.jpg

I will have to go back through each entry and choose the images again. Yuck.

If anyone has any ideas on how to avoid this, please let me know, thanks.

Hi Justin,

I think that the best thing is to post in the CodeShare Corner forum so that you can get some community input into this. I can move this thread over there for you if you’d prefer.

Cheers

Greg

Moving the thread would be good. Thanks!

I realize this deals with an extension, however it seems strange that EE doesn’t have any guidelines or best practices for updating to ee2 with file upload fields, which I wager are utilized on pretty much every ee site. Thanks.

Hey Justin, did you ever get anywhere with this? I’m facing the same issue. The only solution I’ve come up with so far is creating global variables for each of the upload directories and appending them to any field reference in my templates. In addition, I’ve created a new file field that will eventually replace the old one.

So it’d look something like this:

{exp:channel:entries channel="news"}
  {if old_file_field!='' AND new_file_field==''}https://ellislab.com/asset/images/team-photo/{old_file_field}{/if}
  {if new_file_field}{new_file_field}{/if}
{/exp:channel:entries}

Not exactly elegant (or time-saving), but at least this way I can re-upload the images at my leisure and slowly phase out the old field. I’m also using the publish layouts to hide the old fields from users.

If you’re not afraid of some SQL, and after you’ve backed up your DB,

UPDATE exp_channel_data
SET field_id_XX = CONCAT('{filedir_YY}', field_id_XX)
WHERE field_id_XX != ''
AND field_id_XX NOT LIKE '{filedir_%'

Swap out XX for your file field ID and swap out YY for your file upload location ID.

MUCH better! Thank you for the suggestion, that did the trick.  😊

sweet Rob, thanks! Should shave some time.

Rob Sanchez, you’re my hero.

I had been putting off updating an image heavy site to EE2 for a while now, as I discovered this issue when I updated my portfolio site.  There weren’t as many images, so it wasn’t a big deal, but this would have taken days.

I had to updated a file field inside of a Matrix, and modified the query like so:

UPDATE exp_matrix_data
SET col_id_XX = CONCAT('{filedir_YY}', col_id_XX)
WHERE col_id_XX != ''
AND col_id_XX NOT LIKE '{filedir_%'

The col_id_XX is the Matrix cell you want to update.

Excellent stuff. That SQL will do the trick when looking to re-acquaint your filenames with their upload folder locations. Thanks!